Liberals to unveil rent-to-own housing program in throne speech

Premier Christy Clark leaves the podium after speaking to media following a swearing-in ceremony for the provincial cabinet at Government House in Victoria on Monday, June 12, 2017.
CHAD HIPOLITO / Canadian Press

VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark will unveil an ambitious rent-to-own housing program in her government’s speech from the throne later today, the latest in a series of last-minute reforms she says are designed to embarrass her opponents into voting for her agenda, rather than her defeat, in the legislature.

The rent-to-own program will target middle-class renters in B.C. who lack the down payment required to buy a condo or town home, allowing them to rent one of thousands of promised new housing units and then have part of their rent automatically set aside by government toward a down payment.

“It is 50,000 new middle-class homes across the province, we will build them over 10 years with the private sector,” Clark told Postmedia in an exclusive interview Wednesday evening.

“The idea is you go now and are a renter and put your money into the pockets of a landlord and end up with nothing at the end of it.”

The new program will be of particular appeal to renters in Metro Vancouver, where the Liberals lost eight ridings in the election to an NDP campaign that targeted renters and promised improvements on housing affordability.

“The purpose of this … is we think there’s enough provincial property where we could carve out middle-class housing that would stay middle-class housing and it would keep our cities diverse,” she said. “Because nobody wants to live in a city where there’s no middle class.”

The NDP scored points during the election by accusing the Liberals of ignoring renters and those voters without enough money to afford a home.

“I think it’s a bigger issue than just rent or own,” said Clark. “I think it’s the fact that middle-class young people starting out don’t feel they can get a foothold in the city at all, whether it’s renting or owning.”

The Liberals will also try to lure the support of urban renters in the throne speech by promising to finally crack down on fixed-term rental rate loopholes and renovations — both areas in which the NDP have championed reforms while the government has delayed solutions.

The NDP’s gains in Metro Vancouver propelled the party to a large boost in seats and a power-sharing agreement with the B.C. Greens that gives New Democrats enough votes to defeat Clark’s throne speech, topple her government and potentially form a government as early as next week.

In response, Clark has rapidly reversed course on several long-standing Liberal policies — lifting a 10-year freeze on welfare rates, capitulating to demands for a ban on corporate and union donations for political parties, abandoning a protracted fight with Metro mayors over a referendum on transit funding and, on Wednesday, announcing her government would cede to years of NDP demands to create a poverty reduction plan.

She also dramatically shifted on affordable child care. Her government rejected as early as March the idea of a $1.5-billion universal child care system, but on Wednesday unveiled a $1-billion pledge to create 60,000 new child care spaces, as well as expand full subsidies for families with household income of less than $60,000 and partial subsidies for incomes up to $100,000.

Clark said she’s taking the best ideas from the NDP and Green platforms, and combining them with the core Liberal economic values that won her party the most seats in the election.

“We are going to introduce a throne speech that I think both parties will be embarrassed to vote against,” she said.

“But it’s not because I want to see them embarrassed, it’s because I want to see them vote for it. And it’s not because it’s politics, it’s because the only way to have stable government and eliminate this risk of an election is for the throne speech to pass.

“The throne speech is a product of all this listening, of combing through everybody’s platforms, of understanding the election results. What people will see in it is a broad range of ideas that all parties have talked about.”

The NDP has promised a $10-a-day child care plan to be phased in over 10 years. Clark, who attacked the plan as unaffordable during the election, pivoted abruptly Wednesday to argue the NDP promise would now take “too long” for families.

NDP Leader John Horgan mocked Clark for mimicking his platform to try to stay in power.

“Do not be distracted by the people behind the curtains who are trying to make you think they care about you now,” he told an NDP caucus meeting. “Because they didn’t a month and a half ago, and they won’t a month and a half from now.”

Clark denied that she has some sort of last-minute procedural trick or Hail Mary plan to save her government from defeat to an NDP-Green alliance that has one seat more than the Liberals in the house.

“If you look at it the math, it tells us there is going to be an election for sure,” said Clark.

“That’s really what the math tells you because neither party can demonstrate at the moment they can provide stable government. The only way to end up with stable government is for the throne speech to pass.”

She said in the six weeks since the election she has spent time travelling the province to get comment on the election results, including stops at a seniors home in Courtenay-Comox (which the Liberals narrowly lost), daycare centres in Coquitlam, and daily calls to mayors.

“The election process was an important lesson for me and I would argue for the other leaders, too, because people sent us a message and said we don’t really like everything any of you are doing enough, that’s why we have a split parliament,” she said.

“But enough people expressed different views about what was important that we have the responsibility as three parties to gather the best ideas each party had … and put them together. Because that’s what people told us in the election. And for me it was we weren’t doing enough on social programs, and we weren’t doing enough on investing in the environment.”

Clark said her government’s focus on jobs and the economy “like a bull in a china shop for four years” left voters wanting a better balance on social programs and affordability that her party failed to recognize during the campaign.

Clark reiterated that she is prepared to serve as Opposition leader, should her government be defeated. And she said she does not intend to give Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon any advice on whether to call a new election or give Horgan a chance to govern, should her government be defeated.

“I don’t intend to the give the lieutenant-governor any advice, she will make her own decisions about it,” Clark said. “I would say that there is a very strong risk that there will be an election and it won’t be of my making.”

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